SkarpChapter 17 of 21
Self-Managing Teams: Who Decides What, When, and How
Step inside a truly self-managing Scrum Team to see how decisions about work, collaboration, and quality are made without a traditional manager pulling the strings.
Self-Managing Scrum Teams: Why This Matters for PSM I
Why Self-Management Matters
The 2020 Scrum Guide (still current today) replaced self-organizing with self-managing. Many PSM I questions now focus on who decides what, when, and how the work is done.
Core Definitions
Scrum: "Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems."
Scrum Team: "The Scrum Team is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal." This unit is the core of self-management.
What Self-Managing Means
Self-managing teams decide who works on what, how work is done, and when they tackle items during the Sprint, while keeping the Sprint Goal in focus.
What Is Not Self-Managed
The Product Owner still owns the product direction and ordering. The wider organization still sets strategy, constraints, and sometimes deadlines.
Typical Exam Violations
Red flags: managers assigning tasks, Scrum Masters choosing designs, or Product Owners dictating how work is done. These conflict with self-management.
Self-Management vs Self-Organization vs Manager-Directed Work
Three Modes of Work
Scrum now stresses self-managing teams. You may still see self-organizing or classic manager-directed patterns. Distinguishing these is common on PSM I.
Manager-Directed Work
A manager assigns tasks, sets priorities, and decides how work is done. Team members mostly execute instructions. This is not how Scrum Teams should operate.
Self-Organizing (Old Term)
Self-organizing teams choose how to arrange themselves to do work given to them. They may pick tasks but do not fully control what work enters the system.
Self-Managing (Current Term)
Self-managing teams decide who, how, and when work is done to meet the Sprint Goal, while the Product Owner orders the Product Backlog.
Exam Lens
In questions: managers assigning tasks or controlling how work is done indicate non-Scrum. Teams negotiating scope and re-planning daily indicate self-management.
Key Anchor
Always anchor answers in the current term self-managing. Treat self-organizing as older wording that pointed in the same direction but with less clarity.
Decision Boundaries: Who Decides What, When, and How?
Why Decision Boundaries Matter
Many PSM I questions are about who is allowed to decide what. If you know the correct decision boundaries, wrong options become easy to spot.
Product-Level Decisions
The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing product value and ordering the Product Backlog. They decide the Product Goal and what is most valuable.
Sprint-Level Decisions
The whole Scrum Team crafts the Sprint Goal. Developers then decide how many Product Backlog items they can forecast to meet that single objective.
Execution-Level Decisions
Developers decide how to build the Increment, how to break work down, who does what, and when work is done during the Sprint to support the Sprint Goal.
Boundary Violation Example
A Product Owner dictating specific tasks or technical solutions steps into Developers’ territory and conflicts with self-management.
Exam Shortcut
Ask yourself in each scenario: is this a product/value decision (PO), a Sprint objective decision (team), or an execution/how decision (Developers)?
Inside a Self-Managing Scrum Team: A Day in the Life
The Scenario
A Scrum Team builds a mobile banking app. Product Goal: "Enable customers to manage all daily banking from their phone." They are mid-Sprint.
Daily Scrum Dynamics
At the Daily Scrum, Developers inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt their plan. They decide to pair on a tricky API and drop a lower-priority item.
Who Decided What (Morning)
Developers chose who pairs with whom and when to adjust scope. No manager approval was needed to re-plan inside the Sprint.
Afternoon Technical Choice
Later, Developers debate which logging library to use. The Product Owner listens but does not dictate the technical solution.
Who Decided What (Afternoon)
Developers decided how to implement the Increment. The Product Owner stayed focused on value and acceptance criteria, not technical details.
Self-Management in Action
This team continuously re-plans and makes execution decisions within clear product/value boundaries. That is real self-management.
Scrum Values as the Engine of Self-Management
Values Drive Self-Management
Scrum has five values: Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, Courage. Self-management only works when these values are lived, not just printed on a wall.
Commitment and Focus
Commitment to the Sprint Goal and a single clear objective gives self-managing teams a compass for deciding what to do next and what to drop.
Openness
Teams must be open about progress and problems. Without transparency, they cannot inspect and adapt their own plan effectively.
Respect
Respect for each person’s skills and perspectives lets Developers challenge ideas and improve their working methods without fear.
Courage
Courage enables teams to say "we cannot finish all this" or to push back on harmful external control, protecting empiricism and quality.
Exam Signal
Teams that hide problems, stay silent, or just follow orders are showing value violations. That usually means non-Scrum, even if labels sound Scrum-like.
Anti-Patterns: Command-and-Control in Disguise
Command-and-Control Anti-Patterns
Many teams keep old command-and-control habits while using Scrum terms. The exam loves these anti-patterns; you must learn to spot them.
Manager as Task Distributor
If a manager or lead assigns tasks at the Daily Scrum, Developers are not self-managing. Daily Scrum is for Developers to adapt their own plan.
Scrum Master as Boss
When a Scrum Master decides who does what or approves designs, they act like a project manager, not as someone "accountable for establishing Scrum".
Product Owner Micromanaging
A Product Owner who dictates technical solutions steps into Developers’ territory. They should focus on value and ordering, not coding details.
Weak or Multiple Sprint Goals
Without a single clear Sprint Goal, self-management turns into random task completion. The team loses a shared objective for decision-making.
Typical Exam Question Shape
You will often see "what should the Scrum Master do?" The best answers involve coaching and teaching Scrum, not accepting command-and-control.
Thought Exercise: Drawing the Decision Line
Work through this mental exercise to solidify decision boundaries. For each scenario, decide who should make the decision in Scrum: Product Owner, Developers, Scrum Master, or outside management (if it is not a Scrum Team decision).
- Choosing which Product Backlog item is most valuable to do next.
- Who decides? Why? What information might they use?
- Deciding whether to split a Product Backlog item into smaller pieces before taking it into a Sprint.
- Who leads this? Who participates?
- Choosing the database technology for a new feature.
- Who decides this? When might they seek input from others?
- Setting the Sprint Goal.
- Who participates? Who has veto power, if anyone?
- Re-ordering work during the Sprint when a big risk appears.
- Who can propose changes? Who finalizes them?
- Telling a specific Developer to fix a production bug right now.
- In Scrum, who should handle this, and what is the risk if a manager does it directly?
Pause and answer in your own words before moving on. If you struggle, sketch a quick table with columns: "Decision", "Correct accountability", "Why". This kind of mapping is exactly what the PSM I will probe.
Quiz 1: Who Decides What?
Test your understanding of decision boundaries in a self-managing Scrum Team.
A manager attends the Daily Scrum and assigns tasks to each Developer to ensure everyone is busy. What is the best Scrum-aligned response?
- Allow it, because managers are responsible for efficient resource utilization.
- Ask the Product Owner to assign tasks instead, because they own the Product Backlog.
- The Scrum Master should coach the manager and Developers that the team is self-managing and Developers decide how to organize their work.
- Permit the manager to assign tasks only to new team members until they gain experience.
Show Answer
Answer: C) The Scrum Master should coach the manager and Developers that the team is self-managing and Developers decide how to organize their work.
In Scrum, the Scrum Team is self-managing. Developers decide how to organize their work. The Daily Scrum is for Developers to inspect and adapt their plan, not for managers (or Product Owners) to assign tasks. The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide and should coach stakeholders and the team away from command-and-control behaviors.
Quiz 2: Self-Management vs Self-Organization
Check that you can distinguish self-management from older or non-Scrum patterns.
Which situation best reflects a self-managing Scrum Team as described in the current Scrum Guide?
- The Product Owner selects all work for the Sprint and assigns items to Developers based on their skills.
- Developers collectively decide how much work to forecast for the Sprint and how to accomplish it, while the Product Owner orders the Product Backlog.
- The Scrum Master creates a detailed task list for the Sprint and distributes tasks to Developers during the Daily Scrum.
- A project manager chooses the Sprint Goal and asks the team to report daily on individual status.
Show Answer
Answer: B) Developers collectively decide how much work to forecast for the Sprint and how to accomplish it, while the Product Owner orders the Product Backlog.
Self-managing Scrum Teams decide who works on what, when, and how, within the boundaries set by the Product Owner’s ordering of the Product Backlog. Option B matches this: the Product Owner orders the Product Backlog (value decisions) and Developers decide how much they can forecast and how to do the work. The other options show command-and-control behaviors by the Product Owner, Scrum Master, or project manager.
Key Terms and Phrases to Remember
Flip these cards to reinforce essential definitions and exam-ready phrases.
- Scrum
- Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.
- Scrum Team
- The Scrum Team is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.
- Product Owner
- The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team.
- Scrum Master
- The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide.
- Developers
- Developers are the people in the Scrum Team that are committed to creating any aspect of a usable Increment each Sprint.
- Sprint
- Sprints are the heartbeat of Scrum, where ideas are turned into value.
- Sprint Goal
- The Sprint Goal is the single objective for the Sprint.
- Product Backlog
- The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product.
- Sprint Backlog
- The Sprint Backlog is composed of the Sprint Goal (why), the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint (what), as well as an actionable plan for delivering the Increment (how).
- Increment
- An Increment is a concrete stepping stone toward the Product Goal.
- Product Goal
- The Product Goal describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Scrum Team to plan against.
- Definition of Done
- The Definition of Done is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product.
- Empiricism
- Scrum is founded on empiricism and lean thinking.
- Self-managing team (exam phrase)
- A Scrum Team that decides internally who works on what, when, and how, within the boundaries of the Product Owner’s ordering and the Sprint Goal.
- Command-and-control (exam clue)
- Any pattern where managers, Scrum Masters, or Product Owners assign tasks or dictate how Developers must do their work, undermining self-management.
How a Scrum Master Protects and Grows Self-Management
Scrum Master’s Core Role
"The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide." This includes protecting and nurturing self-management.
Coaching the Team
Scrum Masters help Developers own planning and task selection. When asked "what should we do?", they guide the team to decide, rather than decide for them.
Coaching the Product Owner
They help Product Owners respect Developers’ autonomy over how work is done, redirecting them toward value and ordering decisions.
Coaching the Organization
Scrum Masters work with managers and HR to reduce command-and-control expectations and support evaluation based on team outcomes.
Facilitating Empiricism
By ensuring transparency in events and artifacts, Scrum Masters enable the team to inspect and adapt their own plan effectively.
Exam Pattern
On PSM I, the best Scrum Master actions are usually to teach, coach, facilitate, and remove impediments, not to direct or assign tasks.
Apply It: Mini-Scenarios for Exam Thinking
Use these short scenarios to practice exam-style reasoning. For each, decide the most Scrum-consistent response.
- Scenario A
- A senior architect outside the Scrum Team reviews the Sprint Backlog and emails assignments: "Dev1: Item A, Dev2: Item B".
- What should the Scrum Master do?
- Think: Which Scrum value is threatened? Which accountability is crossed?
- Scenario B
- Halfway through the Sprint, Developers realize they over-committed. They can still meet the Sprint Goal, but not all forecasted items.
- What should they do, and who do they need to inform?
- Think: How does self-management interact with empiricism and openness?
- Scenario C
- The Product Owner insists on attending the Daily Scrum and asking each Developer for a status report.
- What is the correct purpose of the Daily Scrum, and how might the Scrum Master respond?
- Scenario D
- A manager tells the Scrum Master: "I want you to make sure everyone is 100% utilized. Assign any idle people more tasks."
- How does a self-managing team view "utilization" vs. "value"? How might the Scrum Master reframe this?
Write down brief answers (1–3 sentences each). After your next mock exam, Skarp’s gap guide will highlight which of these patterns you handle well and which need review.
Key Terms
- Scrum
- Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.
- Sprint
- Sprints are the heartbeat of Scrum, where ideas are turned into value.
- Increment
- An Increment is a concrete stepping stone toward the Product Goal.
- Developers
- Developers are the people in the Scrum Team that are committed to creating any aspect of a usable Increment each Sprint.
- Empiricism
- Scrum is founded on empiricism and lean thinking.
- Scrum Team
- The Scrum Team is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.
- Sprint Goal
- The Sprint Goal is the single objective for the Sprint.
- Product Goal
- The Product Goal describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Scrum Team to plan against.
- Scrum Master
- The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide.
- Product Owner
- The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team.
- Sprint Backlog
- The Sprint Backlog is composed of the Sprint Goal (why), the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint (what), as well as an actionable plan for delivering the Increment (how).
- Product Backlog
- The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product.
- Definition of Done
- The Definition of Done is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product.
- Self-managing team
- A Scrum Team that decides internally who works on what, when, and how, within the boundaries of the Product Owner’s ordering and the Sprint Goal.
- Command-and-control
- A management style where decisions about who does what, when, and how are made by managers or leads, rather than by the Scrum Team, undermining self-management.